Indigenous Planetary Health Podcast

About Indigenous Planetary Health Podcast

We’re burning down our house, and we’re in for nasty weather. But Indigenous peoples have ideas for planetary resurgence and restoration. Professors Heather Castleden and Hōkūlani Aikau bring you conversations with artists, activists, scholars, and other knowledge keepers tackling the climate crisis.

Publisher

HECLab University of Victoria

Category

arts · arts · science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Apr 2024

Latest episode

5 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

55 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Aug 2026

   EP52: Planetary Health as a ‘Web of Love’: A Conversation with Dr. Jodi John

   A common concern we hear from Indigenous early career researchers be they graduate students or new tenure track professors, is how to work within academia while still being of service to their communities and Nation. Add to this, the fact that historically academic research has caused our communities harm, it is a wonder Indigenous people become academics at all. In this episode, Heather sits down with Dr. Jodi John (Kanyen&#8217;kehá:ka, Bear Clan) to discuss the transition from 20 years of clinical practice as her community&#8217;s registered dietitian to become a researcher. Jodi shares that she’s able to navigate these tensions because her research is grounded in relationships and “a web of love”. It is her love for her community that propelled her to explore how community care providers build relationships with community clients and the impacts on access, engagement, and care. Jodi illuminates how culturally grounded healthcare that honors connection, visiting, and reciprocity creates a more meaningful and effective approach than the impersonal practices of Western healthcare, which is the foundation for planetary health. Now, her research has become an opportunity to bring community together through cooking and trying out new healthy recipes that incorporate traditional foods into modern meals. Jodi also introduces her exciting new project in partnership with community midwives and lactation consultants, which reframes breastfeeding as Indigenous food sovereignty, expanding how we think about health, sovereignty, and the ways communities support families through food. Dr. Jodi John is an Assistant Professor and researcher at Queen&#8217;s University, and Queen&#8217;s National Scholar in Indigenous Food Sovereignty and Community Health. Heather and Jodi explore how reconnecting with traditional food systems can transform health beyond the physical to include the spiritual and mental aspects of well-being and why restoring food sovereignty is vital to the health of both people and planet. This podcast is created by the Archipelagos of Indigenous-led Resurgence for Planetary Health research collective. You can find out more about our research on our website: https://indigenousplanetaryhealth.ca/. (https://indigenousplanetaryhealth.ca/) We receive funding for this podcast from the Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health (https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fheclab.com%2Fdr-heather-castleden%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=MAuznh9eyF%2FFiTRhKMk1f8nP6dxuiNg4WvewOGR%2B8Hc%3D&amp;reserved=0) at the University of Victoria and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. (https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcihr-irsc.gc.ca%2Fe%2F193.html&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=KDIN0JGLsVtk6x2XyKGp3bIb4JJLA3Zgh9GLt4wTRXk%3D&amp;reserved=0) We receive production support from<a href="https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcitedmedia.ca%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8ey...

2. 

   24 Jun 2026

   EP 51 Indigenous Resistance in the Ring of Fire with Michelle Daigle

   In this week’s episode Hoku meets with Michelle Daigle (https://www.geography.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/michelle-daigle), Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Geographies at the University of Toronto, to discuss the ongoing struggle over the Ring of Fire, a massive mineral extraction project proposed across northern Ontario. Michelle is also Mushkegowuk Cree from Constance Lake First Nation in Treaty 9 territory, one of the nine First Nations directly affected by Ring of Fire development. Her scholarly work is grounded in small-scale collaborations with Cree, Anishinaabe, and Oji-Cree Elders and Knowledge Keepers in Treaty 9 to understand how these communities embody care work, as well as land- and water-based governance, in the context of colonial policies and land dispossession, gendered and racial violence, and the impacts of extractive industries and environmental destruction. While government and industry frame the project as essential to Canadian economic sovereignty, Michelle challenges this perspective and exposes the exploitation and oppression behind the massive marketing campaign. She grounds her alternative vision of sovereignty in Indigenous governance and kinship to lands, waters, and more-than-human kin. This conversation brings attention to the more than 32,000 mining claims across First Nations territories that make up The Ring of Fire, and the recent passage of federal and provincial legislation designed to accelerate major resource extraction. Michelle shares how her research examines the environmental, social, and political impacts of mining and infrastructure development, from threats to waterways, wildlife, and peatlands to concerns about Indigenous consultation and environmental justice. Drawing on Cree understandings of the James Bay Lowlands as “breathing lands,” she reflects on how care for lands, waters, animals, plants, and future generations forms the foundation of Indigenous governance. And she encourages listeners and students hold up community and youth knowledge and leaderships such as Jeronimo Kataquapit and relations (https://youtu.be/QPmwBveOAn8?si=fFawkFbjCOpUNSxS). This podcast is created by the Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health (https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fheclab.com%2Fdr-heather-castleden%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=MAuznh9eyF%2FFiTRhKMk1f8nP6dxuiNg4WvewOGR%2B8Hc%3D&amp;reserved=0) at the University of Victoria, with production support from Cited Media (https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcitedmedia.ca%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=t3KKOkUefkSGMaCSYvIeY%2BtGRveHWMlZTq4eEdJM7TI%3D&amp;reserved=0). We receive additional support from the <a href="https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcihr-irsc.gc.ca%2Fe%2F193.html&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=KDIN0JGLsVtk6x2XyKGp3bIb4JJLA3Zgh...

3. 

   22 Apr 2026

   EP 50: Kanaka ʻŌiwi Resistance to Settler Science at Mauna a Wākea with Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar

   This week on the Indigenous Planetary Health podcast, hosts Hoku and Melia share an emotional conversation with Iokepa Casumbal‑Salazar about his new book,  First Light: Kanaka ʻŌiwi Resistance to Settler Science at Mauna a Wākea (https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517902469/first-light/). Iokepa reflects on the long, winding journey that brought this book into being—one shaped by accountability to community, by deep listening, and by the responsibility of carrying stories that are much larger than any single voice, while remaining accountable to the people and places that hold them. Together, we hold space for both resistance and reverence. The conversation moves through the tensions between settler science and Indigenous knowledge, the force of militarization and state power, and the everyday practices of care that sustain Kanaka ʻŌiwi relationships to Mauna a Wākea. We reflect on the 2015 and 2019 blockades at Mauna Kea, situating them within over 130 years of Kanaka ʻŌiwi resistance to U.S. occupation and settler colonialism, and tracing how earlier battles over telescope development shaped the political, legal, and cultural formations of kiaʻi (protectors, guardians). At the heart of this episode is both struggle and joy. Iokepa shares what it means to write from within a living movement—one that resists settler science, capital, and law, while also re‑centering ceremony, relationship, and the sacred. This conversation invites listeners to imagine a Kanaka ʻŌiwi futurity rooted not in more concrete and extraction, but in aloha ʻāina and deep relationships—to land, to ancestors, and to one another. Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar (https://campusdirectory.ucsc.edu/cd_detail?uid=jsalaz27) is currently an Associate Professor in Critical Race &amp; Ethnic Studies (https://cres.ucsc.edu/) at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) (https://www.ucsc.edu/). He teaches courses on Indigenous politics, settler colonialism, popular culture, imperialism, militarism, tourism, and decolonial methodologies. This podcast is created by the Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health (https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fheclab.com%2Fdr-heather-castleden%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=MAuznh9eyF%2FFiTRhKMk1f8nP6dxuiNg4WvewOGR%2B8Hc%3D&amp;reserved=0) at the University of Victoria, with production support from Cited Media (https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcitedmedia.ca%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=t3KKOkUefkSGMaCSYvIeY%2BtGRveHWMlZTq4eEdJM7TI%3D&amp;reserved=0). We receive additional support from the <a href="https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcihr-irsc.gc.ca%2Fe%2F193.html&amp;data=05%7C02%7Chokulania%40uvic.ca%7Ca462fd0803d04a3d9b2a08dc801147c5%7C9c61d3779894427cb13b1d6a51662b4e%7C0%7C0%7C638526058931463892%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=KDIN0JGLsVtk6x2XyKGp3bIb4JJLA3Zgh9GLt4wTRXk%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_b...

Who has been a guest on Indigenous Planetary Health Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dr Shandin Pete
• Noelani Goodyear-Ka’ōpua
• Albert Marshall

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 37 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

60

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Indigenous Planetary Health Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Indigenous Planetary Health Podcast